2006 Volume 46 Issue 2 Pages 93-97
Ionotropic glutamate receptors are ligand-gated ion channels involved in neurotransmission. In 1998, a crystal structure was first solved for the soluble mini-receptor that only included the S1S2 ligand-binding domain of the rat GluR2 subunit. Since then, a lot of crystal structures of the S1S2 construct both in the apo and in various liganded states have been reported. More recently, biophysical studies revealed the structural flexibility of the S1S2 construct. Here, I summarize the ligand-receptor interactions based on the recent progress in characterizing the dynamic structures of the S1S2 construct and the glutamate ligand.
